Bernie Ecclestone rants about kids

Great rant by Bernie about trying to engage younger fans. Think he and FOM are out of touch and only interested in old guys with money? Well, you're right. Damn kids. Get off my lawn, and come back when you have money. The interview is great, he just keeps getting better.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-2834629/Bernie-Ecclestone-m-not-interested-Twitter-Facebook-F1-doesn-t-need-young-fans-don-t-money.html

Followed by a beautiful troll by Lotus F1, who coincidentally also doesn't have any money. They sent him a telegram.

As much as I want to dismiss him as a crotchety old coot, there is some truth to what he said. Dumb to say publicly though.

"There's no point trying to reach these kids because they won't buy any of the products here, and if marketers are aiming at this audience, then maybe they should advertise with Disney."

lmao

He makes a valid point.

And exactly how many fans do you really think actually buy a new Rolex or have mega-bucks to keep at UBS? It's a pretty shortsighted view to think you don't need to engender new viewers. Do you think there's an age and/or income bracket where people will all of sudden start caring about F1 if they had no interest in it before?

I agree there is some truth there, but it could have been more tactfully stated. But then again, it's about what one would expect from him.

Let the rebuttles begin:

http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/mclaren-has-perfect-response-bernie-ecclestones-comments-young-f1-fans?utm_source=DailyDrive20141114&utm_medium=enewsletter&utm_term=headline-center&utm_content=body&utm_campaign=awdailydrive

nderwater wrote: "There's no point trying to reach these kids because they won't buy any of the products here, and if marketers are aiming at this audience, then maybe they should advertise with Disney." lmao

GM tried the same approach as Bernie. How did that work out for them?

My group of friends tends to be pretty car focused, and between the lot of us, there is not one single kid who cares about F1.

He's showing as little tact as ever, but he's not nearly as wrong as he usually is. He's absolutely right that only rich old farts are going to buy Rolex watches and put their money in Swiss bank accounts - the question is if F1 can keep the marketing money going on a dynastic class of rich old farts who buy these things. If so, Bernie will be 100% right. If not, they'll have to "move downmarket" and cater to a younger audience with...I dunno, in-app purchases or something.

I only buy computer stuff, car stuff, and the basic necessities of survival - I don't see those thing advertised in F1.

This is probably an 80/20 situation (or even 90/10), where 80% of your business is generated from 20% of your customers. That doesn't mean they can not market to the other 80%. Some of those will eventually become the highly-touted 20% that he needs.

I doubt he can negotiate a tv contract leveraging an "audience" of somewhere in the tens of thousands, he needs to include us in those counts.

He's right that 70 year old millionaires can individually spend more money - but there are a hell of a lot more 20-somethings. And they'll be fans much longer than the old guys will.

What about the team sponsors? Do they only want the rich geriatric audience ? Heck, what about the teams? Do the old guys really drink much Red Bull? Is Vodaphone only for the aged?

We don't watch the tv broadcast of most races. We pay for online streaming of Le Mans or Bathurst. I'd much rather pay for a quality stream of F1 than watch the nbc broadcast which is 35% commercial breaks.

With all his money why can't he find a decent barber?

Keith Tanner wrote: He's right that 70 year old millionaires can individually spend more money - but there are a hell of a lot more 20-somethings. And they'll be fans much longer than the old guys will.

Bernie's 84 years old. I doubt he is too concerned about how long the 20-somethings will be fans. He's just hoping to go out with one last dying quiver.

I think Bernie's trying to put F1 in the same position as horse racing or sailing - he wants to make it a cultural fixture of the ultra-rich so he can get by with a small number of luxury item sponsors. It's not a new or unworkable idea, those luxury item sponsors can bring in just as much as one with mass-market appeal.

We should go back to having F1 cars sponsored by liquor and cigarette makers.

That would appeal to the youngsters.

I can't stand Bernie. The sooner they can get rid of that guy the better. Maybe then F1 will have a chance at being interesting and worth watching again then.

bludroptop wrote: We should go back to having F1 cars sponsored by liquor and cigarette makers. That would appeal to the youngsters.

Especially the E-cigarettes!

the man is an idiot.

IT is estimated that Tween's have about $350B to $1.2Trillion in buying power per year, mostly as influence over their parents..

dumb.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: the man is an idiot. IT is estimated that Tween's have about $350B to $1.2Trillion in buying power per year, mostly as influence over their parents.. dumb.

Exactly. Maybe they can't afford a Rolex, but they can afford a hat or T-shirt.

MERCHANDISING!

Keith Tanner wrote: We don't watch the tv broadcast of most races. We pay for online streaming of Le Mans or Bathurst. I'd much rather pay for a quality stream of F1 than watch the nbc broadcast which is 35% commercial breaks.

+1. But for me that holds true of just about all sports.

Bernie with fist shaking said: Get off my lawn......

I work in advertising, and I think he's sort of right, but short sighted.

The over 50 crowd has most of the discretionary spending. In the US, that age group has 70% of the wealth, they buy 60% of new cars, they spend more per month on technology than gen x or gen y, and they represent half of all consumer spending. Yet most advertising pretends they don't exist because old people aren't cool, or something.

Source

But with that said, at some point, your existing fan base just keels over and dies, and you need new blood. Cadillac figured that out. In 2000, their average buyer was probably 112 years old, but now they're creating cars younger (but still reasonably wealthy) people actually want, and cars those same new fans may want as they get older.

So no, younger fans can't afford a Rolex. But if you hook them on F1, maybe years and years of exposure to those Rolex ads will turn them into the consumers who view a Rolex as aspirational, who work for years to buy one as a sign that they've "made it."

Benrie ups his 'non political' race deals with murderous dictators as he continues to leave his legacy of corruption, arrogance, litigation, and international racketeering. He is way closer to dead than relevance as a human being. Um, I am not a fan- Oh, and Yes!, he speaks like ass about marketing. F1 could be huge and much better, and hopefully will be without him.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: the man is an idiot. IT is estimated that Tween's have about $350B to $1.2Trillion in buying power per year, mostly as influence over their parents.. dumb.

If their parents loved them they'd get Rolexes

mblommel wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: the man is an idiot. IT is estimated that Tween's have about $350B to $1.2Trillion in buying power per year, mostly as influence over their parents.. dumb.

Exactly. Maybe they can't afford a Rolex, but they can afford a hat or T-shirt. MERCHANDISING!

i thought it was "Moichendising!!"...

He also says the small poorly funded teams are a problem and uses a very unfortunate comparison.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-2835314/Caterham-just-like-POOR-Oscar-Pistorius-says-F1-supremo-Bernie-Ecclestone.html

So what he's saying is that he expects only the well heeled to have anything to do with F1. He's steadily strangling the thing from both a fan base and participant standpoint.

Ecclestone will die one day, I hope whoever steps in to fill the vacuum doesn't have his head up his ass. And Wally is right; you'd think he could afford a better haircut. Maybe he and Donald Trump use the same one...